Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd (London)

(27 cm), 66 pp., illustrations (some in colour). 96 lots. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Includes a near-complete set of the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi (E-Series), offered as “Property of an Italian Noble Family”. The group had been offered by Sotheby’s, Catalogue of Important Old Master engravings, etchings and woodcuts, London, 26 April 1979, lot 117, and left unsold (estimated £20,000-£25,000). The Sotheby’s catalogue had described the group as “47 plates from the set of 50”, “later fifteenth-century impressions (?), showing wear”. When it reappeared in Christie’s, impressions of “Clio” and “Chronico” were supplied. Prior to their appearance in Sotheby’s, the prints had been mounted (with 38 others, by the Master ES, Israhel von Meckenem, and unidentified printmakers) in an album assembled by the collector Natalizio Benedetti of Foligno (1559-1614); for a discussion of the album before its dismemberment, see Bernardino Lattanzi, ‘La mostra dei Tarocchi a Foligno’ in Bollettino Storico della città di Foligno, volume 14 (1990), p.565-572. ¶ Annotated copy. No price list.